


My Dragon

by blueberryscowler



Category: Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica - James A. Owen
Genre: Gen, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 06:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6554119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueberryscowler/pseuds/blueberryscowler





	My Dragon

The dogs didn't mind Fred, he was too much like themselves. What he saw when he entered the Watchmaker's cave could have been much worse, considering what John had told him about this place. He did not see a mantis or any other gruesome creature, but a slender, lizard-like woman, shortly replaced by a winged golden pig, finally shaping into a short man, with slicky dark hair and a large, curved nose.  
  
"Good day," said Fred.  
  
"Is it day?" asked the Watchmaker and sat down on his workbench, taking a thing that looked like a platinum screwdriver. "I often lose track these younger milleniums. My condolences, by the way."  
  
"You have heard of it?" asked Fred, completely indifferent to the strange man's idea of time.  
  
"I know when a Caretaker dies. Now, I suppose you want a watch? You didn't have to come, as I am already working on yours."  
  
Fred swallowed, and stepped closer to the man, ignoring the mirrors which exclusively reflected the Watchmaker, in the most inredible, yet uncanny ways.  
  
"How far is your work, Sir?" he asked.  
  
"You can't take it with you, yet." said the Watchmaker, not looking up from his work.  
  
"Oh, I know, Sir. I just want to ask, wether you have already done the Dragon. You are a friend of Samaranth, aren't you?"  
  
The man nodded. "But I haven't done him yet."  
  
"Well, that is good," said Fred and for the first time, the Watchmaker looked up at him, so he continued. "I, too, am a friend of Samaranth. At least, I hope I might call myself so. But I have noticed somethin unusual about the Prime Caretaker's watch. There is not Samaranth on it, but a green and gold Dragon, of a more European shape."  
  
"You want one like that? That is quite an unusual request."  
  
"Not quite like that. Not the _same_. I first thought Scowler Verne's watch was different, because of his unique position among the Caretakers, but then, I have noticed that some of the Elder Caretakers have much different watches, too. The Dragon on da Vinci's watch is yellow, and th' one on Dante's watch that is kept in a cabinet has a white Dragon. I thought maybe, Samaranth was not the only possible Dragon to be pictured on an Anabasis Machine, but the most popular one. Probably because of his direct relationship to th' younger Caretakers. Could that be true?"  
  
The Watchmaker looked up again, and stared in the badger's eyes. Then he looked back on his work, which he did not pause.  
  
"That is a possibility. For the last centuries, no one asked for a watch that featured any Dragon but Samaranth, not until the frenchman came. He was the first Caretaker to not come from Britain in a while, and I thought he might not be familiar with the unsaid, yet accepted, customs of a Caretaker. And now..."  
  
"There's a _badger_. With all respect and love I hold for Samaranth, I cannot connect to him in a way the other Caretakers do, or the way you do. He is a Dragon for the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve. That is where he belongs, and so they feel close to him. But he is not _my_ Dragon. Not because I connect less, but more than the others. The humans, especially those from the Summer Country, and the Caretakers are from the Summer Country, and so they need Samaranth. I do not wish to take that away from them. I am born as a Child of the Earth, here in the Archipelago, on the back of a _Dragon_."  
  
"I understand," said the Watchmaker. "Would you like a cup of tea, when we discuss the details of your watch? I thought so," he added, when the badger made a shy nod. "Samaranth loves tea," said Fred. "He occasionally shared a cup with my grandpa. It's always been incredible. He sometimes let humans have tea with them."  
  
"Some of them survived," noted the Watchmaker.  
  
"And I couldn't enjoy anythin' more than traveling by Dragonship from one of Island to the other. I especially loved the Lantern Lands, which Scowler Jack enjoys so much."  
  
  
When Fred woke up in his bed at Tamerlane House a few weeks later, he found a silver pocket watch on the pillow, just beside his face. It featured a beautiful green Dragon, and some green and blue flowers and plants as decoration.  
  
"That's what the Green Dragon must have looked like before she became a ship," he muttered to himself. "I can't wait to show it to Charles..." He swallowed hard. "Well, I can't wait to show it my fam."


End file.
